Bill Mercer, United States Attorney for the District of Montana, announced today that during a federal court session in Billings on November 4, 2009, before U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull, ATHENA CANDACE BEAUMONT, a 28-year-old resident of Billings, was arraigned and pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribute cocaine. Sentencing is set for February 4, 2010. She is currently released on special conditions.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney James E. Seykora, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

From late summer of 2008 to June of 2009, BEAUMONT was involved in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute and distribute cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance. BEAUMONT would receive cocaine from her source of supply, Shon Flores, and distribute the same to R.R. R.R. in turn would distribute cocaine to various individuals, including an undercover detective on at least 25 occasions, totaling about 250 grams of cocaine alone.

During the course of the conspiracy, surveillance teams followed BEAUMONT to Flores' residence in Billings to obtain cocaine for redistribution. In April 2009, BEAUMONT sold approximately 27.8 grams of cocaine that she had received from Flores to an undercover officer.

Flores, a co-conspirator, and one of BEAUMONT'S source of supply admitted that from December 2008 until June 2009, he distributed approximately 20 ounces of cocaine to BEAUMONT for redistribution.

On July 6, 2009, BEAUMONT was interviewed and admitted to obtaining roughly 16 ounces of cocaine from Flores from January 2009 until June 2009. BEAUMONT in turn redistributed the cocaine in various quantities to numerous individuals, in addition to the undercover officer, in the Billings area.

The amount of cocaine that BEAUMONT was responsible for and which was directly and reasonably foreseeable to her in the conspiracy exceeded 500 grams.

BEAUMONT faces possible penalties of a mandatory minimum of five years in prison and could be sentenced to 40 years, a $2,000,000 fine and at least four years' supervised release.

The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force, the U.S. Marshals Service and the Billings Big Sky Safe Streets Task Force.